Statistical Tools
Message posted by Lucky (via 205.188.198.188) on August 28, 2001 at 2:07 AM (ET)

What are some of the best statistical tools that you have used and why you like them?

READERS RESPOND:
(In chronological order. Most recent at the bottom.)

Re: Statistical Tools
Message posted by Darius (via 200.23.217.10) on August 29, 2001 at 9:58 AM (ET)

I can talk about my preferences.

I like regression / correlation analisys, because you are suppouse to determine a value for an independient variable with you don愒 have and you can put that expresion in a computer program to automate the calculus of some sort (for example dunn outlier detection).

I like histogram because it shows how your variable is distributed across the scale.

I like the control charts because it shows the natural limits of your variable.

I like significance tests (t-test, f-test, anova) because it helps to show if there is a difference between groups of values.

I hope this may help.

Re: Statistical Tools
Message posted by Phil (via 66.32.21.234) on August 29, 2001 at 5:19 PM (ET)

I like histograms to get a "snap shot" or "x-ray" of the data I am working with. It is very helpful. The shape, center, and spread of the distribution are easy to size up. If the data can be stratified and you can get box & whisker plots, they can be very helpful as well.

Control charts are valuable because they help determine common cause vs. special cause variation (Read Deming's "Out of the Crisis").